No posting until this evening, when I get there. Open thread, be good in comments.

[Update at 2300 EDT]

In Florida, survived both flight and the drive from Miami to West Palm Beach on surface streets, though it took a while (it was rush hour, and my rental car couldn’t affordably deal with turnpike tolls, 95 would have been a nightmare, and I saw some interesting territory between here and there that I never had). Anyway, back in the land of heat, humidity, and flat.

[Update a while later, before going to bed]

I was catching up on the news, including the too-narrow Republican win in Ohio, and I heard a strange noise outside. I went and opened the door and realized that it was something with which I had been recently unfamiliar, being from southern California. I think it’s called “rain.” In fact, the last time I’d heard it, a couple weeks ago, was the last time I was here in Florida.

And as Glenn says, if Trump were to use the Insurrection Act to do something about it with federal troops, the media would call him a dictator.

I heard a Democrat give the standard line this morning that this is about lack of gun control, not in Chicago, but in the surrounding areas, and that (of course!) the only solution is nationwide gun control, to keep the guns out of Chicago. Unfortunately for this “argument,” we aren’t seeing these levels of violence in Gary, or Milwaukee, or even Detroit, which have just as much access to those same guns.

A big theme of MacLean’s book is that Buchanan inspired an effort to promote an anti-democratic putsch by the Koch Brothers. As Ilya Somin has explained, her conception of democracy doesn’t make any sense, at least if one assumes that she supports standard limits on democracy widely supported by progressives. But other historians have come to the rescue, arguing that the United States is a democracy when it follows the will of the people, as opposed to the will of organized reactionary interest groups. The U.S., for example, was democratic in the 1930s and 1960s, but not in the 1950s or 1980s. Democracy, in other words, means “progressive politics are winning out.” Lack of democracy means “progressive politics are not winning out.” Because in a true democracy, the will of the people wins, and the will of the people is naturally liberal-democratic-socialist. So Roe v. Wade is a “democratic” decision, even though it overturned the abortion laws of almost every state, because progressives approve of it. I kid you not.

A new mountain lion has been spotted in the Verdugos. It’s interesting that LA is so big and geographically diverse that it can have not just parks within it, but a wilderness. Unfortunately, urban encroachment is going to make it harder and harder for these animals to make it there. They’re building a tunnel under the 101 to allow them to move back and forth between the Santa Monicas and the mountains above Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks, but I’m not sure if it will be sufficient, and it looks like they need one under the 210 to allow safe passage between the San Gabriels and the Verdugos.

Ignoring the absurdity of the overreach of yet another single district judge making a decision for the entire country, the administration needed no other reason than that DACA itself was an unconstitutional and illegal executive order. And as Mike points out, the three branches are not in fact co-equal. Ultimately, it is up to Congress.